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Tom Hanks admonishes Bitty Schram with the memorable line 'there's no crying in baseball' from the movie 'A League of their Own.' / AP Photo

Gary Cooper, center, as Lou Gehrig, crosses home after hitting a home run while filming the movie 'The Pride of the Yankees,' on June 30, 1942. At right is Bill Dickey (8), catcher for the New York Yankees, playing himself in the movie. / AP Photo

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Baseball made its nearly annual appearance at the box office this season with John Hamm starring in “Million Dollar Arm.”

Like a number of baseball movies, it’s a true story — and a good one. The sport’s incredible history has provided years of rich material for Hollywood. When a subject can pair Walter Matthau and Tatum O’Neal for a movie that works as well as “Bad News Bears,” you’ve found something.

In 2013, Harrison Ford played Branch Rickey in “42” — detailing Jackie Robinson’s historic journey to shattering the game’s color barrier. Dennis Quaid starred as “The Rookie,” Disney’s 2002 production of a true story based on the memorable exploits of Jim Morris, who went from 35-year-old high school teacher to MLB reliever in a matter of months.

There was even a decent romantic comedy about baseball: “Fever Pitch,” starring Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon. That one is mandatory viewing for any Boston Red Sox fan who wants to relive the team’s first World Series championship in 86 years.

I enjoyed each of those pictures, but a starting nine of all-time baseball picks would look like this:

• 1. “Eight Men Out” — Intrigued by the mystique of “Shoeless” Joe Jackson? Curious about the 1919 Black Sox scandal? This is your movie.

It’s deadly serious and enjoyably accurate — even to the point that D.B. Sweeney correctly bats lefthanded as Shoeless Joe (as opposed to Ray Liotta’s performance in “Field of Dreams”).

What happened to the 1919 Chicago White Sox was a tragedy of greed and ignorance. Most of the players are cast as helpless victims, bullied by their owner, blackmailed by gamblers, and hustled by a couple of their own teammates.

There’s not a better movie on this list.

• 2. “Bull Durham” — Kevin Costner was at his best here. This movie is so good, you forgive Tim Robbins for being a horrible athlete with no idea how to pitch.

Susan Sarandon is tolerable as the ultimate groupie of minor league ballplayers. It was written and directed by Ron Shelton, who drew on his own experience in the bus leagues.

It’s funny. It’s somber. It’s bawdy. It’s fun.

• 3. “Major League” — Charlie Sheen was center fielder Oscar “Happy” Felsch in “Eight Men Out.” Here he plays Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn. Calling him in to shutdown the Yankees in the ninth with the song “Wild Thing” blaring still gets me. Great stuff.

Tom Berenger is the anchor of the film as the veteran catcher. Wesley Snipes, Corbin Bernsen and Rene Russo round out an excellent cast.

But for me, Bob Uecker steals every scene with his quick wit and insider’s baseball dialogue as the team’s daffy play-by-play guy. This film is 25 years old and any casual Cleveland Indians fan easily can recite numerous lines from it.

• 4. “The Natural” — This 1984 movie is based Bernard Malamud’s 1952 novel. It offers the nostalgia of baseball, circa the 1930s, with heavy cotton uniforms and train travel.

Randy Newman’s memorable music and the enchanting cinematography enhance the romanticism of baseball in its earlier days. Glenn Close was nominated for an Academy Award and Kim Basinger for a Golden Globe in their roles of heroine and femme fatale, respectively.

Robert Redford is the epicenter of the picture, the classic sidetracked hero who climbs all the way to the big leagues. If you never read the book, don’t. The movie ending is far more satisfying.

• 5. “Moneyball” — Another film based on a book of the same name, this one stars Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, along with the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman.

A true story, we are introduced to sabermetrics, which play a huge role in the game today. It’s a method of looking at statistics in a new way to predict the success of a player and, in turn, an entire team.

Pitt and Hill were both nominated for Oscars, as was the movie. Want to see a small-market team find a way to compete with the big spenders of baseball? The 2002 Oakland A’s showed the way, and this is their story.

• 6. “Pride of the Yankees” — Gary Cooper is not an athlete, and we don’t care.

The true story of Lou Gehrig’s life and death was the first great baseball movie. Made in 1942, it also stars Teresa Wright and Walter Brennan, along with the real Babe Ruth.

Hollywood took poetic license from the real story of the Yankees’ first captain, but those details are wildly unimportant in the grand scheme. Gehrig was a giant, and this picture stands as a fitting epitaph to his life.

• 7. “A League of their Own” — Yet another account based on the true story of the World War II-era All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Penny Marshall directed an excellent comedic cast including Geena Davis and Madonna, but the real star is Tom Hanks as the drunken team manager. His character, Jimmy Dugan, was a take-off of epic slugger Jimmy Foxx, who managed the Fort Wayne Daisies after his Hall of Fame playing career.

It’s a bit sentimental but offers enough character exploration to carry the day.

• 8. “Trouble With the Curve” — The critics were widely split here. Some ripped it for predictability, but it resonated with me. Maybe I have a Clint Eastwood bias, but I enjoyed looking at the game through the view of a tired scout.

Eastwood’s eyes are shot, his personal life is a shambles, and he barely can take care of himself. Yet his instincts and feel for the game are so finely tuned, and he’s still a valuable asset to his employer.

Finding and procuring major-league talent while eschewing the metrics are his game. This would be a terrific double feature juxtaposed with “Moneyball.” One film would draw the purists, the other would attract the fantasy-leaguers.

• 9. “Field of Dreams” — Everyone tells me I should like this movie more than I do. It tries so hard.

James Earl Jones and Costner take us on an unusual journey, chasing voices and ghosts of baseball past halfway across the country. There’s even an appearance by Burt Lancaster in the key scene.

The nostalgia and father-son relationship the game has fostered through the generations is honored here. It certainly resonated for many baseball fans. People still drive to the Iowa cornfield where this film was shot. I like the idea of “Field of Dreams,” just not sure I understood it.